All posts by David Schlecht

We often get hate mail and have considered publishing them for the sake of humor, but we decide against it. We believe everyone knows just how rabid people can get over politics. This message came in on our “Contact” page. It true fine Republican form, it is divorced from reality to the point border on humorous. Humorous, with a sprinkle of sad. Here it is. Feel free to comment if you agree or disagree with this.

David, To call out the Republican party which led right now by DT is more of a third party than ever before is not only ridiculous its a bit irresponsible the upside is not many read this blog. Fascists came to power by hindering opposition, skewing how news is reported and consistently used the media as well as movies to promote their agenda. This is exactly the playbook of the left right now and interestingly enough before Hitler’s true colors FDR often talked about how progressive and insightful Hitler’s plans were, FDR sent a group over to Germany to study his economic plans. The Reich used false dossiers to have his rival killed (sounds familiar). BO left the world burning and I have to say I don’t particularly care for DT’s style but it is working both repubs and dems are getting exposed by DT bc he could really care less what anyone thinks. He sees what we have done for years has been burying our future economy. Basically your last paragraph was just a typical cheap shot by the left who love say things loud as if that makes them true. The current left is that of the nobility of convenience.

Where does one begin with so many misconceptions? I’ll start at the top but have no interest in disprove all the lies that have been debunked so many times before.

To call out the Republican party which led right now by DT is more of a third party than ever before is not only ridiculous its a bit irresponsible

The Republican Congress could oppose Trump as their oath of office demands, but they are complicit. Not a single one of them wants to oppose Trump. The GOP is the party of Trump. Trump is not a 3rd party but the natural culmination of the party since the adoption of the Southern Strategy.

This is exactly the playbook of the left right now

Demonizing the press is exactly the GOP and Trump’s playbook. Have you not been paying attention? Ever heard the phrase, “fake news,” or, “enemy of the people?” It’s not the left saying that. Where have you been? What rock are you finding your news under? Please tell me you’re not foolish enough to believe Fox or the other GOP propaganda.

Okay, I’m tired of this. Feel free to come back with some credible links to back up your assertions. Doing the research to accomplish that just might open up your eyes to the lies your being fed.

Like Oregon, many states have ballot measures for amending their state’s constitution.

Don’t do it!

Our constitutions are not meant to be trivially fiddled with to reflect everyone’s hot topic of the day or year. Our constitutions are supposed to last forever, with minimal disruption.

The same goes for our nation’s constitution. There have been very few amendments over the years – about ONE change per decade.

Most of today’s ballot measures are being driven by special interest groups, many funded by billionaires. The billionaires even have an amendment proposed in Oregon that will require a 2/3 vote in order to change the revenue. There is no better way to destroy a government than to put such foolish restrictions on addressing their budgets.

But the billionaires and special interest groups don’t care what happens to the state or the country, long term, just so long as they get their way today.

Always vote NO on any ballot measure that changes the constitution unless there is a major and compelling reason to change the constitution forever. Most, if not all the ballot measures would be better addressed at bills and laws, not constitutional amendments.

Just say “why” when being asked to change your state’s or country’s constitution.

And, ALWAYS, just say “no” to billionaires and special interest groups that don’t reflect the people’s needs and best interests.

With the Republicans in control of all three branches of the US government, we are now criticized for “human rights violations” by the UN and most of the world.

Let that sink in for a minute. America! We are no longer the shining city on the hill or any of the many other classifications the Republicans of old used to say about America. We are now a third world country that abuses people and kidnaps their kids and houses them in dog kennels.

And, we aren’t talking about little violations here and there. We are talking about kidnapping over a thousand kids.

Now, Trump will tell you that it’s someone else’s fault, but as it is with everything else Trump says, it’s a lie. His policies and only his policies are responsible for the awful and criminal behavior that has the rest of the world in horror. However, no one is in disbelief. This is the exact kind of stuff Trump has been doing since his election, and the self-proclaimed “deplorables” couldn’t be happier with him.

When will America wake up? The Democrats in Congress are doing everything they can to keep some semblance of control over this tyrant but the entire GOP is aiding and abetting this criminal and his criminal administration.

If you’re as horrified as the rest of the world is of this mistake in the White House, contact your GOP representative today and tell them to put an end to Trump’s crimes. It’s time for impeachment hearings.

If you think Trump can do no wrong, then this should be fine with you as you must believe he will be found innocent. On the other hand, if you object to hearings, then you’re lying to yourself and everyone else and you know Trump is guilty and will be found as such.

Wake up, America. This is not us. We do not kidnap and imprison thousands of innocent little kids.

The Democrats won Alabama. Revel in the glory. But, stop, take a breath, and look at it in perspective:

You lost to the worst president in the free world and the worst example of humanity that we’ve seen ever in our presidency. Got that? You lost to TRUMP! Really? Would you even stand a chance against Hitler? I question it.

But, hey, you won Alabama. You won against someone suspected of and accused of child rape on multiple occasions, hatred, bigotry, misogynist, racism, and who really knows how low it goes? It took everything you had to beat an opponent as lowly as this.

Think about that for a moment. If you don’t come away realizing you’re in a world of hurt, you’re just not paying attention. You might win a seat or two but no matter how energized you get your new voters, they’ll all give up on you if you don’t go back to your roots and start standing for things that matters to Americans.

As much as Hillary will blame others for her loss, the problem is that she represents the same old song and dance that has gotten the Democratic party where it is today. It appears, though, that she is waking up. Will the rest of the DNC be able to wake up?

Take a look at what the Republican party looked like 50 years ago and you’ll see that the Democratic party is now far to the right of that. You have lost your way.

Go back to your roots. Go back to Progressive issues that affect everyone. Here are just a few, in case you’ve forgotten:

Free healthcare for all

An end to the huge separation of wealth by:

Implement a 92% tax on billionaires

Implement a wealth tax to bring the monied gods back earth. I suggest 100% on anything over one billion dollars. No one needs any more than that.

Clean up the media. We are, today, suffering from the loss of the Fairness Doctrine. Pass something that gets the teeth out of any propaganda like the GOP machine. This also includes fully funding public radio and make it more difficult for the future GOP to poison it.

Get money out of politics. This is a no brainer.

Rebuild our country’s infrastructure.

Require unions in businesses

I can already hear your moans, “oh we can’t do that.” That moan is exactly what has helped get you were you are, almost losing to the Moores of the country. We CAN do anything we set our minds to do. Do it!

But, you know that the GOP courts (as they have packed almost all the courts throughout the country) will shoot down anything serious you propose. This means you will have to pick which of these issues are important enough to exclude the court from interpreting. You have the power to pass laws while forbidding the courts from interfering. Do it.

The GOP will do everything in their power to destroy anything good you do for this country. This means you will have to temporarily nuke the filibuster. It is being abused so it must go. Nuke the filibuster for 10 years, to fully reinstate after that time unless passed by a continuing vote of a simple majority.

But will you do these things? It will mean that the monied interests will oppose you. What is more important? Standing to your principles or caving to the money? You’ve been doing the later for 35 years now and see where it’s gotten you.

I can’t believe they’re still trying to sneak through, the tax bill that gives trillions of dollars to GOP doners and members of Congress while taking that money directly from our treasury – and some people are naive enough to believe that it will help them.

Who do you think is going go have to pay back the national debt after this? Congress? Their owners (doners)? No, it’ll be you and me and worse yet, our kids and grandkids.

If it’s not illegal for Congress to pass bills that enrich themselves at our expense, it should be and what’s more, it is immoral. But one party doesn’t really care so much about what’s right, legal, or moral.

What else could we be using that money for? How about fixing up our infrastructure so our bridges and trains don’t come crashing down? But, no, Trump expresses his fake concern and touts how someday, real soon, they’ll do something about it. But, not today, they’re busy taking away our healthcare, and robbing our treasury and removing money from our infrastructure. Obviously, we know what is most important in their eyes.

So, let’s get this straight, those getting rich are our Congress, their owners, billion dollar corporations, billionaires, and Big Pharma. And who loses? Our treasury is raided, money for our infrastructure is reduced by this tax giveaway bill. Our deficit will take a trillion dollar hit that you and I will have to repay. And they pretend you and I get a couple bucks out of the deal

Who really makes out on this deal?

Call your Congressman today and tell them you know what they’re up to and they better vote no. DO IT TODAY!

Anyone who even occasionally visits Twitter, is now seeing an avalanche of political posts coming from over seas. Trolls. I’m sure Twitter has enough in-house talent to prevent this but they better get on it.

We, here at JustSayWhy have seen an explosion of comment posts and attacks coming from Russian IP addresses and even more coming from VPN services. This is a real shame since we need to encourage the use of VPN to ensure Internet privacy.

Like Twitter, the VPN companies probably have the talent to stop nefarious activity from their customers, however, this might be a step too far for many who want total freedom to do anything they want and hide their real addresses.

To reduce the criminal behavior from the Russians polluting our discourse with Trump propaganda, JustSayWhy is now blocking all VPN traffic. It’s a shame to discourage a service as valuable as VPN, but we will not play this game.

What this means to you? Probably nothing unless you use a VPN company to hide your real IP address. More than that, though, is you now must be wary of any post and comments on any website you visit as the Russians are coming.

In my entire life I have never seen a politician or even a candidate for any office smearing America like Trump and his followers do.

How did we get to the point where the party that is in control of our government hate it so? Trump fills his cabinet posts with people who are against the purpose of the position. This isn’t all that new. Reagan was good at filling positions like the Labor positions who were anti-labor and people to the education department who were against public education.

But never has it been this bad, never in my lifetime. Trump bashes just about everything America from the media to the Democrats (you know, the majority of Americans) to the liberals to the justice department, to the FBI.

How could anyone vote for a party that hates America so much?

Did they really believe that there was going to be any draining of the swamp? I don’t believe so. Many people knew what kind of man Trump was before the election. His rants of “Fake News” and “Grab ’em by the p****” were obvious clues.

So, the voters who supported Trump (including those who didn’t vote Trump or Hillary) all knew what they were getting but they voted for him anyway, all for the sake of getting entrenched political ideology out of the swamp.

The sad part of all this is many of those Republican voters would do it all over again.

So, you tell me, does the GOP really hate America like it appears or are they just capitalizing on the frustration voters have, not with the country, but with our government?

This tax plan that the GOP is putting forward contains cuts for almost everyone, according to them. However, in reality this isn’t quite so. In fact, millions of Americans will see their taxes go up.

But, even for those who will see their taxes go down, this is not really a tax cut. You will have to pay all that money back with interest. How so?

These tax cuts are being paid by increasing our country’s debt. And, who pays the debt? The tax payers. With interest.

So, the GOP is giving you $100 with this hand while taking $110 with the other. This is not a tax cut for you and me. In the long run, it’s a tax increase just like the increase for the millions I mentioned above.

The worst part of this is the damage that these tax cuts have on the economy. Think back to the previous three major tax cuts.

Bush’s tax cuts ended up causing the crash of 2008. This was the worst crash since Reagan. Before that, Reagan started the trickle down fairy tale of the 80s and that created the biggest crash since the Great Depression.

Oh, and yes, the Great Depression. That crash was caused by tax cuts for the corporations and the wealthy, creating the temporary bubble called the roaring 20s.

So, in a nut shell, the GOP is pretending to give us tax cuts while giving the super wealthy the real tax cut, the whole while risking our economy.

Most of us have been here long enough that these trickle down fantasies never work and cause more harm than good. But, there are still a lot of people who believe the propaganda. We call those people, Republican voters.

In order to prevent the Republican voters from destroying our economy and creating an increase in our taxes, we must get active. Only 20% of the country is still believing the conservative propaganda but they are a very active 20%. It will take every one of the rest of us to get mobilized and call our representatives and put a halt to the big give-away to the super wealthy.

I loved reading Cyl’s post, America is Under Attack. She is spot on in many ways. Let me drill down into this just a little bit further.

As many have noticed, my editorial style has changed over the years and I try not to come across as partisan but to keep as objective as possible. When possible, I try to show that fixing America isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue, but is something we all have to come together on. We can’t afford to let them divide us any longer.

So, try to turn off your political biases for a moment and let’s see what got us in this mess and what we can do to fix it.

I believe that the primary cause of our current mess is money in politics. We all agree that corporations aren’t people and money isn’t speech, but our corrupted Supreme Court says it is. I’ll leave it up to my readers to look to see which judges passed this and which presidents appointed them.

Let’s take an example. Getting back to Cyl’s article regarding the gun attacks, the NRA, and a government intent on protecting them against the American people, one must question, why would representatives of the people side against the people. Is it simply that the NRA pays them more than the individual doners? I don’t think it’s that simple. The NRA is much more than just a payday for the politicians, they’re a source of tried and useful talking points and a supporting source of propaganda.

These talking points and propaganda are not without cost to the NRA. It costs a lot of money to create and spread propaganda. And, don’t fool yourself, propaganda, a form of marketing, works. That’s why marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry.

If you add up the bribes to the politicians, the marketing to remove anti-NRA politicians, the propaganda, and the marketing, the NRA spends more than most industries on corrupting our government. And it has worked.

Now, this isn’t an anti-NRA rant. This is about how America got into this mess. The NRA and other monied interests are spending tons of money to corrupt our representatives and it’s working.

What’s more, this is not a Democratic or Republican issue. Both parties feel the influence of money in politics.

You can probably guess how we fix this. Get money out of politics. But, how can we do that when the Supreme Court is owned by big business? Any bill Congress passes will be found to be unacceptable by big businesses’ Supreme Court judges.

The solution is for Congress to write into the bill wording that forbids the Supreme Court from reviewing the bill. This will, as many people say, cause a “constitutional crisis.” The constitution says in plain verbiage that the Supreme Court is not above the Congress: “the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.” [Article III Section 2]

In conclusion, getting money out of politics will fix the things that are making our representative government ineffective. Getting money out means getting the big business control of the Supreme Court out of the way of the solution. After all, if you’re not part of the solution…

America has endured an endless stream of unbelievable and unacceptable embarrassments from the Trump administration. We are becoming numb to the horrors. Worst of all, the Republican representatives who are responsible for censoring Trump are all too happy to circle the wagons rather than actually having investigations into the wrong doings.

This is not normal. Even Nixon had Republicans around him who were prepared to see that the crimes were investigated. Today’s GOP just wants to brush it under the rug.

This is not normal.

When a political party holds the needs of their party over the needs of America it can only be bad for America. It is not normal for an American political party to downplay the fact that a foreign country has meddled with our elections. Regardless of whether or not you believe it influenced the outcome, it is an attack from a foreign country and needs to be brought to light. Yet, the GOP hides and downplays it.

Is that normal?

A president fires government official who are responsible for investigating this which seems to be an obvious obstruction of justice. Maybe it was just a stupid mistake. Maybe. But if Obama had been involved in it during his presidency, there would have been endless investigations and allegations. Yet, we hear nothing from the party now that it’s one of their own.

This is not normal. We cannot allow this to stand. We must take back our democracy and get out the party that will hide attacks from a foreign country to protect their president.

This is not a Democratic or Republican issue, it’s an American issue. No party is more important than the needs of our great country and anyone who is trying to downplay this is hurting our nation.

I see lots of speculation about why the Democrats lost this election and most of them miss the mark. To begin with, you hear the GOP saying they have a mandate since the Democrats lost all three branches of government. This is hogwash. The election was very close with the Democrats winning the majority of votes. This is by no means a mandate to trample America’s principles.

But, on to the question of how this happened. Looking at both parties, there was a groundswell of establishment opposition. That is obvious with the fact that a Socialist Democrat like Bernie (an obvious outsider) could get so close to winning the Democratic primary and Trump (also an obvious outsider) actually took the GOP primary.

So with the anti-establishment feeling running so deep, Hillary started running on more Progressive issues and backed away from the positions of the establishment, such as free trade and further cuts to the social safety net. She was even talking about increasing the minimum wage and Social Security, both of which have taken a big hit from GOP cuts and neglect.

But what happened? Why did she quit with the Progressive issues? Why did she start talking like another beltway insider at the end of the campaign?

Well, part of the problem is she was put on the defensive with the FBI election rigging (yes, someone should go to jail for that) and didn’t say anymore about the establishment. She started attacking Trumps character (which is easy to do) and quit actually sounding like an outsider.

This really give only one reason for the results, America voted for an outsider. The Democratic party better wake up to that or they’ll be out in the cold for many elections to come.

As it often happens, voters are given a choice between an authoritarian leader or a non-authoritarian representative. This difference is fundamental to the very fabric of America’s principles.

The US constitution doesn’t say we should elect leaders. That seems like a pretty shocking revelation to many people. But, this country was not founded on authoritarianism, but on rebellion against such authoritarians. The very nature of the US is to question and restrain authority.

When it comes time to vote, keep that in mind. If you want to change America’s core to be followers of strong leaders, then vote for the authoritarian, but know what you’re doing when you do so.

On the other hand, if you are interested in keeping America free from the tyranny of the oppressive authoritarian leaders, vote accordingly.

Whichever way you vote, be sure you know the consequences of your actions. We were not founded on following strong leaders, but rather overthrowing them.

A billionaire, Koch brothers funded, front group was caught flooding millions of dollars into Nevada elections to circumvent the will of the people. With the Senate seat up for grabs, the billionaires are busy trying to influence Nevada elections.

Their thinking seems to be along the lines of, “the stupid hicks of Nevada will vote for whoever they see on the TV the most.” Obviously they underestimate the Nevada voters.

This isn’t a choice between Republican or Democrat, but between electing a senator who represent the people or one who only represents the billionaires.

Let’s make sure they get the message. We wont elect a billionaire stooge like Joe Heck. What the Heck do they think we are.

I went to a movie at the Galaxy Theaters the other day and was infuriated by the larger than life ad spewing lies about legalized cannabis. The ad smacked of the same lies we were told back in the reefer madness era. Lies about one thing after another.

Many of us can see the lies as the propaganda they are but there are many people out there who will actually believe these ads. And the sad part is that these same fools (being made fools by the ads they watch) go out there and vote based on those lies.

Shame on you Galaxy Theaters for allowing these blatant lies on your screen. If you’re going to allow these obviously lies on your screen, you should at least preface them with a disclaimer to the effect that “the following propaganda ad may contain lies, deception, and falsehoods, so be sure to verify what you see on these ads before believing in them.”

Anything less than that, and you are responsible for people being made fools of all for your profit. Have some morals. It’s not just about profit. There is a responsibility you carry that you don’t deceive or otherwise harm your customers.

Here are some facts to clear up the lies:

Legal cannabis does not look like the Hershey’s candy you see in a grocery store. You don’t accidentally pick up the wrong kind of candy. I know, it sounds stupid, but that’s exactly what the ad infers and some people believe it.

Way more than one in six people viewing the ad will be made fools by the lies. However, exactly zero kids in six will get addicted to cannabis.

OMG, the sky is falling. Did you hear that Clinton’s being investigated for something? For the past 20 years, Hillary has always been investigated for one thing after another.

What most people don’t realize is that she has been found innocent of all of them. Did you get that? She is innocent of ALL OF THEM!

The Republican party has been accusing her of one manufactured scandal after another. Here is a short list of just the most notable. Ever heard fo the email scandal? How about Benghazi? How about Travelgate? How about Whitwater? What about the IRS scandal? How about filegate?

So if she’s been accused of so many things and never found guilty, why do people still believe the liars who are manufacturing the scandals? In other words, only a mentally handicapped person would continue to believe someone who repeatedly lied to them.

However, the Republican voter is that handicapped person. They will continue to believe the lies and the manufactured scandals and will refuse to believe it when she is found innocent. They will swallow up one lie after another without end. Why?

Are they mentally handicapped?

Maybe Fox and the other GOP propaganda outlets are actually making their viewers and listeners mentally handicapped. Maybe it’s working.

Just the fact that they don’t find a more reliable source indicates a serious sickness.

And all this gets back to what we can do about it. There is only one thing. We need to get EVERYONE out to vote. No more accepting the excuse that, oh, it’s so hard, or there’s no difference between the parties, or any of the other feeble excuses. Get everyone you know registered and out to vote. Only then can we wake up the Republican cult members.

So after circumventing democracy and tipping the scales in Hillary’s favor, Debbie Wasserman Shultz decides to step down. Say what? You’ve done your damage and now you can just quietly slip away?

Oh, I hope not. She should be run out of DC on a rail. She needs to get the Hell out of politics. Because of her, we are now stuck with a candidate that, according to Michael Moore, can’t even beat Donald the Dump Trump. Bernie would have won the race hands down, but thanks to Debbie, we’re looking at the possibility of a serious disaster in the presidency, a disaster that this country might not be able to recover from.

If we hope to stop the train wreck of Trump it will require a whole not more of us getting out there and getting registered and voting. If we don’t, then we’ll get exactly what we deserve for our laziness and it is frightening.

I read the article today about how the candy form of THC is getting in the hands of children. Do you realize what this means?

Nothing!

Absolutely nothing! Pot has been around for more than a year or two and it has always been something that kids might get their hands on. Users of drugs sometimes accidentally leave their vices unguarded. The same is true for something far worse, alcohol and even worse than that, cigarettes. So why tell us about this now?

Here’s why it’s an issue today. There is a multi-million dollar propaganda campaign trying to kill legal cannabis. They can’t beat it with the facts or with the truth so they have to bring up silly stories and try to scare everyone.

I read another article about how THC was found in the water supply in a Colorado town. Of course, it wasn’t enough to have any effect on anyone, but it was enough to scare the people. “Oh, my GOD! We’re all going to become REEFER MADNESS!”

The sad part is that this propaganda will actually work on some weak minded people and those people might vote. The only thing we can do about that is to make sure everyone who isn’t weak minded gets out there and votes, too.